Previous Week High & Low (PWH / PWL Liquidity)
Last week's highest and lowest print are fixed the moment the weekly candle closes on Friday. Every swing trader's stop, every breakout order and every protective exit from the previous week sits clustered just beyond those two prices. When NQ, ES or Gold runs the previous week low on a Tuesday or Wednesday, takes that liquidity and closes back inside the range, it very often produces the single largest and cleanest expansion leg of the entire week.
Why it works
Institutions need volume to fill size, and volume lives where stops live. A weekly extreme holds far more resting orders than any intraday session level, so a sweep of the previous week high or low is a higher-conviction event than an Asia or London raid. The weekly level does not move, does not repaint and does not need interpretation — it is simply frozen for five trading days.
Level taken from the weekly candle. Confirmation on 5m, execution on 1m.
Strongest on Tuesday and Wednesday during the New York session.
The checklist
- 1Previous week high or low is still untaken when the week opens.
- 2Price pierces the weekly level and the candle body closes back inside the range.
- 3A fair value gap forms on the way back and price retests it.
- 4The reversal direction agrees with the New York midnight open bias (discount for longs, premium for shorts).
Execution
On the retest of the inverted gap left behind by the reversal away from the weekly level.
A few ticks beyond the weekly sweep wick. If that wick is taken, the weekly level has genuinely broken.
First the opposite side of the current week's range, then the other weekly extreme. Frequently 3R to 5R.
When you should not take it
- Do not fade the weekly level on a Monday — Monday usually builds the range rather than reversing it.
- Do not take it when the weekly level breaks with a strong body close and holds beyond it; that is weekly expansion, not a raid.
- Do not trade it into a red-folder release such as CPI, NFP or FOMC.